How to Be a Mentalist: Master the Secrets Behind the Hit TV Show

Simon Winthrop is a brilliant writer and a top mentalist. His book is helpful and enlightening to anyone who wants to be a mentalist. It is so great that it should be on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Its an anazing tool for taking control in any situation. Simon uses a very simple vocabulary and gift us with a lot of very usefull skills.

I enjoyed the story as well in this book

Some other reviewers have complained that this book doesn't go into enough detail about how to become a mentalist. Well duh! Mentalism, at least as far I understand it, is a multi-dimensional field encompassing a broad range of subjects like hypnosis, lie detection, reading body language, showmanship, etc etc. It would be impossible to cover all these subjects and teach anyone how to be effective. What this book DOES do is give you a broad outline, an overview of the subjects you need to become familiar with and then proficient at. The rest is up to you. It help me understand mentalism and gave me a solid outline so I can now continue my studies.

Despite the title "How to be a Mentalist" it's NOT a "how to" book. There are more pages devoted to talking about episodes of the tv series "the mentalist" (which I've never seen and dont care about) then there are actual "how to's" In addition, when he does try to delve into how to ascertain certain things, it's often worthless. Example: pg 207 suggests having an assistant who speaks in code to tell you what the object is. Really? Really really? I was hoping to understand how mentalists make deductions based on their observations, but as the author says on pg 74 "... useful observations are endless, and so they can be difficult to teach. They're better learned through years of patient observation." well, that is certainly an easy out for the author. and finally when the author does give you an observation it's worthless. Pg 76 "if the person isnt in great shape, you can rule out weight lifting." Wow!! So clever... sigh...

Perfect book for first time learners.

It shipped pretty fast and came on time. Very good book. My boyfriend loves it!

If you're a fan of the TV show, you'll be intrigued by the premise of this book and want to dive into the secrets of what makes Patrick Jane so awesome. Unfortunately for you, this book won't open the doors for you that you're hoping for. This book serves mostly as a primer, giving you basic information for particular things he does, without giving you any real meat to make it happen for yourself. If you have no experience in mentalism effects or hypnosis, then this is a way for you to sound informed at a party. However, putting any of these in practice will be hard. To the book's credit, it does reference particular episodes to explain what the author is talking about. That does make it relevant to the show. And it's not that thick, so you'll be able to knock this out in just a few hours. Really want to amaze folks? There are several books that would give you enough information to be effective, though you would need to read each for a particular area. The Encyclopedia of Cold Reading (all you would need to prove yourself a mind reader), Anneman's Mental Miracles (to show off a little), and a basic hypnosis book (if you're willing to put in the practice time) would be more beneficial if you are truly interested in "how to be a mentalist". If you're just interested in a little more depth on what they do in the show, pick this up.

Generally an easy read. It's in depth enough to be a good intro to the subject as a whole while not burdening you with too much information. If you want more then you can you can read a separate book about each topic, but then you would have to read 5 books instead of 1... I certainly think I have learnt a lot from the book & enjoyed reading it.

If you are already interested in this matter, you will not find a lot of new information. But if you just started it gives you a great overview about memorism, concentration etc. It also a good for students. It gives a general idea how to handle the flood of information at the university and how to avoid stress. Alltogether a good book.

Love it

Looks more like a review of techniques of other experts rather than any educational content about becoming a mentalist. Would not recommend reading this. Better go for Joe Navarro, Janine Driver, Paul ekman books

useless book, with nothing specific in it. Just somewhat generalised Blabla. Do not buy the thing